Art. 28 Notifying authorities | AI act regulation | AI act

This article establishes the framework for notifying authorities, which are the national bodies responsible for overseeing the assessment, designation, and ongoing monitoring of conformity assessment bodies under the AI Act.

It sets out the structural and operational requirements these authorities must meet, focusing heavily on ensuring their independence and impartiality.

The article feeds directly into the broader conformity assessment machinery of the regulation, as notifying authorities act as the gatekeepers for which bodies are permitted to carry out third-party conformity assessments of high-risk AI systems.

Important points:

Each Member State is required to designate or establish at least one notifying authority, with procedures developed in cooperation across all Member States.
Notifying authorities must be structured to avoid conflicts of interest with conformity assessment bodies, including a separation between those who assess and those who make notification decisions.
Notifying authorities must have personnel with adequate expertise across information technologies, AI, law, and fundamental rights supervision.

1. Each Member State shall designate or establish at least one notifying authority responsible for setting up and carrying out the necessary procedures for the assessment, designation and notification of conformity assessment bodies and for their monitoring. Those procedures shall be developed in cooperation between the notifying authorities of all Member States.
1. Member States may decide that the assessment and monitoring referred to in paragraph 1 is to be carried out by a national accreditation body within the meaning of, and in accordance with, Regulation (EC) No 765/2008.
1. Notifying authorities shall be established, organised and operated in such a way that no conflict of interest arises with conformity assessment bodies, and that the objectivity and impartiality of their activities are safeguarded.
1. Notifying authorities shall be organised in such a way that decisions relating to the notification of conformity assessment bodies are taken by competent persons different from those who carried out the assessment of those bodies.
1. Notifying authorities shall offer or provide neither any activities that conformity assessment bodies perform, nor any consultancy services on a commercial or competitive basis.
1. Notifying authorities shall safeguard the confidentiality of the information that they obtain, in accordance with Article 78.
1. Notifying authorities shall have an adequate number of competent personnel at their disposal for the proper performance of their tasks. Competent personnel shall have the necessary expertise, where applicable, for their function, in fields such as information technologies, AI and law, including the supervision of fundamental rights.